Getting started with e-portfolios: Oxford Institute of Legal Practice

Case study by Liz Polding of the use of e-portfolios at Oxford Institute of Legal Practice, one of three pilot projects undertaken as part of UKCLE’s Using e-portfolios in legal education project. If you would like to know more about the use of e-portfolios and reflection at OXILP contact Liz on e-mail: l.polding@oxilp.ac.uk.

Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (OXILP) piloted the use of e-portfolios with students on the Legal Practice Course (the LPC) during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 sessions. Two mini-pilots were run in the first year, while in the second year the project operated across the whole course. Key points from the project evaluation are given below – for further details, including student comments, see Evaluating e-portfolios in law, a report on all three e-portfolio pilot projects.

E-portfolios continue to be used at OXILP. It is significant that the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s guidelines for the next phase of the LPC make specific reference for the first time to a requirement for trainee solicitors to “reflect on their learning and identify their learning needs”. The published outcomes for the new course, which must be offered from 2010, do not specifically require the use of an e-portfolio, however they do take an outcomes-based approach, with a need to evidence reflection and the identification of learning needs.

These factors, taken in conjunction with the use of work-based learning once the course is complete, suggest a need for assembling evidence of outcomes and the student’s reflection on that evidence. Whether e-portfolios are used to meet this need will be up to the individual providers of the LPC and those who study with them. It is clear, however, that an e-portfolio is a tool which would meet this need very well.

The software

From 2004-06 OXILP was involved in the Vmap project, developing an e-portfolio plug-in for Moodle, OXILP’s open source VLE. Students were given the choice of using Vmap, a visual representation of a portfolio as a cloud-like shape, or Elgg, an open source social networking site, for their e-portfolios. The aspiring lawyers felt that Elgg better reflected how they envisaged their portfolio and looked more professional, although Vmap did offer a valuable way of managing work.

Elgg has been used through the course of the project, initially via a link, but now fully embedded in Moodle. Users can collate information in a variety of formats, including podcasts and documents, and allow access to other users such as their tutor.

components of an Elgg portfolio

Supporting resources

Each year’s students have an area on Moodle called the Vault, which contains all the documents for their year, divided by course. A reflection section was set up in the Vault to group together links, resources and information about reflection and e-portfolios.
The reflection section provides links to the following resources:

• What do we mean by reflection? – short paper on the concept of reflective learning, summarising basic theory and emphasising the importance of reflection as the completion of a learning task and a lead-in to planning and evaluating the need for further learning
• UKCLE’s Introduction to developing reflective practice, giving a wider view of the topic and demonstrating that it is an important issue for legal education and learning generally
• the Support for Learning site, which includes questionnaires enabling learners to assess their learning styles and develop an understanding of what types of activities might help them to learn more effectively
• an article on the use of Elgg in education
• a video on using Elgg as a e-portfolio
• the Elgg home page, where students can set themselves up as users
• a reflection template, developed in conjunction with the students in the 2006-07 mini-pilots

the reflection section

The reflection template

Students initially felt they did not know what to write when reflecting, and so a Word template was drafted and amended in line with their comments. The template aims to encourage wide reflection, providing a series of questions for students to ask themselves to kick start the process.

The template includes the following fields:

• title of the piece of work and subject
• skills area/s
• grade (if applicable)
• what did I learn from this piece of work?
• what would I do differently if I were to do this piece of work now?
• if you received tutor or peer feedback for this piece of work, what comments did you find helpful?
• if you disagreed with any feedback, what was it and why did you disagree?
• how would you use what you have learned in this exercise in other areas of the course or training contract?
• any other comments?

Law firm involvement

In 2006-07 law firms in the Thames Valley were approached with a view to students using the e-portfolio as part of their training contracts following completion of the course. The firms were offered support to minimise any extra work, including portfolio hosting if necessary, but more crucially they needed to be convinced of the potential benefits to them, such as more effective trainees who could learn from experience and apply knowledge in different contexts for the benefit of both clients and the firm.

Negotiations regarding the use of e-portfolios during the training contract are still ongoing. The new LPC outcomes were not released until November 2007, and so firms were understandably diffident about committing to the initiative until it was clear what was likely to be required. Now that the information is available, OXILP is in talks with an organisation representing a group of law firms regarding a possible study in this area.

The 2006-07 mini-pilots

The first mini-pilot involved 13 volunteers, three of whom had English as a second language. Four volunteers were male, and nine female. They were asked to upload assignments from the compulsory subjects on the course, together with a formal reflection considering what they had learned and what they would do with that knowledge. They were also asked for their views on reflective learning and e-portfolios generally. The students were advised that the e-portfolio space was only visible to their tutors, and not to other students or the other volunteers, to encourage open reflection.

Later in the session the mini-pilot was expanded to include two elective subjects, private client and private acquisitions, chosen as covering both commercial and non-commercial subjects. Students were given areas on Moodle into which to upload their work, together with their reflections and any feedback they had received. The portfolio is skills-based, and so students were encouraged to upload assignments involving skills, such as drafting and writing.

Take-up was not high, with less than 10% of students expressing an interest in becoming involved in the project and just under half of those who expressed an interest actually making use of the facility. The low take-up was possibly due to the fact that students were offered the option of reflecting on their work, rather than being required to do so.

Findings from the mini-pilots

Key points from the evaluation:

• only 20% of the volunteers had used portfolios before
• 60% liked the idea, 40% were neutral
• 100% thought compiling the portfolio would help them monitor their progress and demonstrate achievement
• 100% wanted to control access to their data
• 100% agreed that portfolios would be useful in demonstrating outcomes
• only 20% had used formal reflection before, but 80% agreed it was useful

The students were very concerned about privacy and wanted to be able to choose levels of access to their portfolio – for example, they wanted to be able to ensure that employers could see only pieces of work showcasing their talents. The portfolio had to be intuitive and portable (Web-based rather than software installed on one computer) or they would not use it, and the benefits of use had to be clear.

E-portfolios 2007-08

During 2007-08 the e-portfolio facility was again offered to all LPC students, with a particular focus on part time students. Part time students study the LPC over two years, spending 11 long weekends per year at OXILP. They are typically in either full or part time employment – some work in a legal environment, but most are not supported by their employers in terms of study leave or financial support.

Contact during the study weekends is typically by small group session. Large group sessions are delivered by MP3 podcasts, released between study sessions on Moodle. Students also receive materials via Moodle, together with a preparation schedule for each weekend’s work.

A number of changes were made at the start of the session to the way the e-portfolio facility was presented and the amount of information the students were given. Feedback from students in the previous year had been positive, but clearly the low take-up meant that more information and guidance was required.

All students undertake an induction course including a welcome talk from the Institute Director at the beginning of the year. In 2007-08 the availability of e-portfolios was brought to students’ attention during this initial talk, with the reflection section in the Vault covered during their IT induction session (in 2008-09 this induction included a section on setting up an e-portfolio).

Students were encouraged to use the reflection template, and staff were reminded that the template was available and asked to encourage students to use it when returning marked work. Students were encouraged to use the electronic version of the template, although paper copies were enclosed with marked assignments as a prompt. Students were also asked to consider completing a template prior to their meetings with their personal tutor, to help with their own and the tutor’s assessment of their progress. It was suggested that they complete at least five templates during the course, to include at least one skills assessment.

Take-up remained very low. There were nine participants in total, six female and three male. Four of the volunteers were studying full time, and five part time. None of those participating completed a reflection template for their personal tutorial, although some students did use the template as part of the feedback and evaluation process for assignments.

Findings from 2007-08

Key points from the evaluation:

• none of the volunteers had used portfolios before, and only 20% had used formal reflection in their studies
• 60% liked the idea of using a portfolio as part of their legal training and felt it would help them to monitor their progress and demonstrate achievement
• 80% agreed that portfolios would be a good way of determining whether outcomes had been met
• 60% felt that employers would be likely to find the monitoring or e-portfolios onerous, with the remainder neutral
• 80% said that they found formal reflection useful, with the remainder neutral
• 80% were concerned about showing weakness in their reflections if these could be seen by their employers, however 20% did not agree that this was a concern

Generally, the participants felt that portfolios would be useful, but that their introduction and use should be managed differently, preferably by integrating them into the course and the training contract. They also felt that students need time to get used to the idea, and that starting the process before the course began might be a useful way to go about ensuring they accepted the portfolio as part of their legal training from the start.

The volunteers also found articulating reflection using the template useful, however the sample was relatively small, consisting of those who were interested in exploring this area or were open to trying new methods of study. It is likely that this influenced how willing they were to reflect on their work, however the reflection process did appear to benefit those needing additional feedback or with less contact time.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010